Efficacy of oral sucrose in infants of methadone-maintained mothers.

BACKGROUND

One report indicated that taste-induced analgesia was sub-optimal in methadone-exposed (ME) infants.

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this work was to compare the effects of oral sucrose in infants born to methadone-maintained mothers with control infants.

METHODS

The aim was to compare the effects of an oral sucrose solution in infants scheduled to have a heel lance procedure for routine newborn screening. Infants received 0.05 ml (one drop) of a 24% sucrose solution by mouth 2 min before a heel lance procedure, then a further 0.05 ml of sucrose at the time of the heel lance; this was repeated every 1-2 min until 30 s after the completion of the procedure. The primary outcome measure was pain. We assessed pain using the Premature Infant Pain Profile (PIPP), which is a validated composite pain assessment tool.

RESULTS

PIPP scores were similar in both infant groups. Median PIPP scores of the ME infant group versus the control infant group were 2.0 (interquartile range (IQR) 0-7) versus 2.0 (IQR 0-9) at the time of the heel lance (p = 0.99) and 2.0 (IQR 0-4) versus 1.0 (IQR 0-4) 30 s after the completion of the heel lance procedure (p = 0.28).

CONCLUSIONS

This study found no differences in the pain responses of ME infants and non-exposed infants when given sucrose during heel lance procedures.